Primer pockets not as clean

[abunaitoo]

Everytime I see someone post their wet tumble shells, the primer pockets are all clean.
Mines get cleaner, but still not 100%
Inside the case is 100% clean.
I use Lemishine, liquid car wash and wax, hot water.
Forget what size pins I have, but it's what was being sold for cleaning shells.
I tumble for an hour or more.
Since the insides are clean, I'm guessing the pin to shell ratio is good.
Do I need to tumble longer?????
Is there a better solution I could use????

[rockrat]

Add some Dawn dishwashing liquid to your liquid.

[444ttd]

take out the liquid car wash and wax and replace it with dawn liquid soap. it should only take a few drops of dawn. i use a harbor freight rock tumbler with a 4" piece of pvc and i'll do a 9mm case of lemishine, 2-3 drops of dawn and hot water.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtTxBqOwtnA&ab_channel=TreeTopFlier

[lightman]

I use the same formula that you do but I tumble for 2 hours. Mostly because 2 hours is a fixed choice on my timer. I don't know what size my pins are but they will pass through a flash hole.

[Murphy]

I know it's one more step in the process, but I learned to hit the primer pockets with a brush before wet tumbling. Try one batch as you're doing, and then do one with the primer pockets brushed. You'll be surprised at how much of that dirty water in the tumbler comes from the primer pockets alone.

Murphy

[fatnhappy]

I’m blown away by how clean wet tumbling gets the primer pockets and inside of my brass.

I gotta tell you, I’m a believer.

I use a squirt of dawn, a tablespoon of citric acid and a cap full of woolite if I have to take lube off.
I’m using 10 lbs of pins and 3 gallons of water in my home made tumbler.

Ymmv

[JWFilips]

I have found out Winchester primers leave the most stubborn residue....don't know why? but I noticed that for years

[444ttd]

I use the same formula that you do but I tumble for 2 hours. Mostly because 2 hours is a fixed choice on my timer. I don't know what size my pins are but they will pass through a flash hole.

the first time it will go 1 1/2 - 2 hours. after that it will go about 1hr.

[Shawlerbrook]

Ditto on the Dawn detergent.

[Tripplebeards]

I use a tsp of lemishine and a tablespoon of $1store liquid dish soap. I tumble for 4 hours in my HF double rock tumbler. I have left it tumble over night as well. I just use cold water. Under four hours and I get dirty flash holes.

[RKJ]

I tumble mine for about 2-4 hours depending on when I remember to pull them. It seems that if I don’t have a lot of brass they get real clean but if I put a lot in they’re clean but not sparkling. You mentioned your brass ratio but maybe try less and see how they look. Just an idea.

[jorg0370]

I recently upgraded my wet tumbler setup from one half-gallon tub to two. I've never used car wash or wax, but always use 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of dish detergent, plus a 9mm case full of Lemi-Shine along with tap water and stainless steel pins. There's 4 pounds of pins split between the two tubs.
I stop after a 15 minute run to remove the primers, since the range brass is usually covered in sand, clay, and dirt. Then another 30-90 minute run after removing the primers.
I'm going to try giving the pockets a quick brush after removing the primers, because the pockets don't always clean up for me. Thanks for the idea!

[Chris S]

I use Dawn and Lemishine, no particular amount, just a squirt and a sprinkle. A gallon of water and a couple pounds of pins. Let run as long as you can, overnight is OK.

One thing I did not see mentioned above is: You DO have to clean the pins and tumbler. Just a little Dawn and some fresh water, swish it around with your fingers in the sink, dump and repeat. I do that 4 or 5 times until the suds are gone.

Get yourself one of those really fine mesh strainers like is used in the kitchen to sift flour. Great for extracting the pins from water without dumping them down the drain. I bought mine on Ebay for a couple bucks, I think it's 6 inches in diameter.

Chris

[rockrat]

I use lemishine, dawn and car wash/wax. The car wash/wax leaves a fine wax film on the brass and helps prevent tarnishing and seem to help when sizing

[1I-Jack]

I stop after a 15 minute run to remove the primers, since the range brass is usually covered in sand, clay, and dirt. Then another 30-90 minute run after removing the primers.


I use a LEE Universal deprimer before throwing them in the tumbler. The Universal doesn't care if they are dirty.

[Pete44mag]

I use 3 .45ACP cases full of Dawn dish soap and 1 case .45 of Lemishine in my Frankford Arsenal wet tumbler. Then I mix the proper (label directions) amount of Maguires liquid auto polish in warm water in the media separator and rinse my brass. I will lay out my brass and dry with a blow dryer. The tumbler stays clean and has no residue from the car polish and the blow dryer dries it on the brass. I also deprime my brass before I tumble with a Lee Universal Depriming Die, it keeps all the grit and carbon out of your press and dies.

[kevin c]

Am I right in remembering that the main reason for cleaning primer pockets was to remove residue back in the days when the compound and/or the powder was corrosive? Does it make any difference otherwise?

Don't get me wrong, I'm worse than most in my magpie like lust for shiny objects, but I'm finally realizing that there can be downsides in some situations. For instance, wet tumbling with pins makes my 9mm cases as shiny as new inside and out, and, for me with my custom Lathesmith .357 M style expander, stick just as bad, whereas wet tumbling without the pins gets the exteriors bright with the insides only moderately clean, but the sticking is much reduced (I tumble for 90 minutes, using car wash'n'wax with the citric acid, mainly for tarnish prevention but the wax apparently has a bit of a lubricant effect).

[abunaitoo]

I'll try adding a squirt of dawn to mines next time.
I find with the car wash liquid, the brass is shinny and will not dull over time.
To me, a clean inside will keep the powder from reacting, and cause corrosion.

[Duckiller]

I scrape out primer pockets with a cricket tool. lets the new primer be properly seated in the pocket. First set of reloads 50 years ago didn't seat properly. now pockets get scraped and primers seat properly. After scraping cases get tumbled.

[fcvan]

I deprime with a universal die and immediately wash in hot soapy water using Dawn. I want clean brass in my good press, the deprime station is a cheap Lee C press I also use for a powder stand when doing rifle cases.Drained, they get sized and go into a Dawn and lemon juice rinse for 5 minutes.

Drained, but not rinsed or dried, brass gets tossed straight into the vibratory polisher. My ground walnut is 'conditioned' with Turtle Zip Wash which kind of reactivates by the wet brass. That moisture also causes the ground walnut to swell up as wood type grains do. Polishing media and brass is dry within an hour and the brass is done, primer pockets clean, sizing marks are gone.

The media gets Turtle Zip Wash (1 tbs) every 1000 or so cases, media gets washed in a zippered burlap sack about every 5000 or so cases. I have 2 zippered sacks so I always have 'new' media ready to go. My media is stained black from the oxidized zinc, but is rough and ready every time. I haven't bought ground walnut for 10 years, but when I did, it came from a chain pet store, sold as reptile bedding, way cheaper than buying from a gun store chain.

I have not had a problem with media caught in the flash hole but still inspect every case before priming. 1 in a 1000 or so might have a grain and I just poke them through while they are upside down in the loading block with a small eyeglass screwdriver on the bench for that purpose.

[bedbugbilly]

I stainless steel pin wet tumble in hot water, a dash of Dawn detergent, add some powdered citric acid and a very small dab of paste wax. I am using the smaller Frankford Arsenal tumbler. I put the brass in and then fill the container about 3/4 full of hot water. I tumble for an hour, rinse several times in hot water - I have a screen filter that replaces the cap on the tumbler barrel so it's quick and easy. The water from the original tumbling usually comes out pretty dirty even with range brass that looks fairly clean - I rinse two or three times. The entire case seems to come out sparkling bright and the primer pockets match and are squeaky clean as well.

I'm not cleaning large quantities of brass but I learned early on not to overfill the tumbler with brass. By that, I mean try and push the capacity of the tumbler bin. Example - I'd rather end up with 150 really clean and sparkly 30-30 cases than 225 mostly clean and sparkly 30-30 cases.

[snowwolfe]

I always clean up the primer pockets with a cutting tool after depriming. You would be amazed at how the brass can flow and change the internal dimensions of the pockets after firing a couple of times.

[canyon-ghost]

Agree with snowwolfe, I check them with the cutter after depriming. Some don't take much to touch up.

[Mal Paso]

I'll try adding a squirt of dawn to mines next time.
I find with the car wash liquid, the brass is shinny and will not dull over time.
To me, a clean inside will keep the powder from reacting, and cause corrosion.

Dawn and Car Wash/Wax fight each other. I tumble with Dawn and use Car Wash/Wax as a rinse before drying.

[Randy Bohannon]

The Dawn detergent is the key ingredient for the best results with steel pins , I think you can deviate from the Lemi Shine and Dawn recipe and eliminate one or both of the benefits of those ingredients and get mixed results.
I have been using my Thumbler’s Tumbler B model for 25 years now with ceramic and s.s. pins with outstanding cleaning with either . Ceramic and Buffalo Arms solution for B/P cartridges, primer pockets are cleaned at the range with a Pope decapper that has a primer pocket scraper built into it as the ceramic does not touch primer pockets. But it excels at interior and exterior cleaning with big straight wall cartridges.
I do nothing to bottle neck cartridges other than resize and clean my dies after each use with ATF and mineral spirits. S.s. Pins and the Lemi Shine,Dawn detergent is all that is needed . I use a towel to make a Nest for the brass and a hair dryer to get them very hot and dry the pockets. Rinsing in hot water facilitates oxidation, cool water rinse and laid out on a towel and blasted with the low setting on a hair dryer gets them very hot but not to hot. This method keeps them as bright and shiny as when the came out of the tumbler for several years as they will dull over time as brass does naturally,but never to the point you wouldn’t use them.

[Rizzo]

Frankford Arsenal Wet Tumbler with Stainless Steel pins.
Add the pins and brass, fill to one inch from top with warm/hot water, one squirt of orig. Dawn liquid detergent, and fill a 9mm case with powdered Citric Acid (Walmart) and add to the batch.

I set the timer for 1-1/2 hours.
I sometimes stop it in the middle and flip the tumbler so the stuff rotates in the other direction for the remainder of the time

They come out beautiful.
If you look closely you can see your reflection in the primer pockets (grin).